by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE SECOND BATTLE OF RIVERLAWN
The enemy did nothing, and seemed to be still in a state of confusionand uncertainty as to what they should do. The new commander of theirforces was certainly even more stupid than Captain Titus had been. AsDeck had suggested, he had expected to surprise the defenders atRiverlawn, so far, at least, as to get their boats into the water beforethey discovered that they were attacked.
"If they had any plan of attack it is a failure," said Captain Gordon,as he and the planter were seated on their horses watching the enemyfrom the front of the boathouse. "One of the recruits informs me thatthey have a leader in the person of a captain from the Confederate armyin Tennessee, who was either sent for by Captain Titus, or wasdespatched by General Buckner to organize recruits for the Southernarmy."
"I should say that his first business would be to prevent recruiting forthe Union forces," replied Major Lyon.
"Whatever he is, he has made a mess of it," added Captain Gordon.
"But what did he expect to do?" asked the planter.
"Of course he expected to put his pontoons into the water, and send overa force of from thirty to fifty men before they were discovered. If hehad done that, they could have acted as sharpshooters from behind thetrees on this side. They are just out of range of our muskets now,though the twelve-pounders would catch them with a single shot ofcanister."
"But I don't wish to have any more of them killed and wounded than isabsolutely necessary," said the planter.
"You desire to carry on the war on peace principles," answered thecaptain with a smile. "You don't seem to understand that the war hasactually begun, and the more damage we can do the enemy, the better itwill be for us."
"You are in command, and I shall not interfere with your operations,"said Major Lyon, as he rode off to the point where Levi was training hisgunners.
The recruits in front of the boathouse were impatient for something tobe done. They were from the country around the village of Barcreek. Thefrequent outrages against Union men and families had kindled a feelingof hatred in them, and they were anxious to retaliate. The influence ofcertain men like Colonel Cosgrove and Colonel Belthorpe had created moreUnion sentiment than prevailed in many of the Southern counties of theState, and the loyal men had been terrorized from the first indicationsof trouble.
"Why don't we fire at them, Captain?" demanded Enbank.
"Why don't you fire at the moon? Because you are too far off, andnothing is to be gained by it," replied the commander. "I am waiting forthe enemy to make a movement of some kind; and as soon as they do so,you shall have enough of it, I will warrant you."
"They are doing something now!" exclaimed Sam Drye.
"The mule-teams are in motion!" exclaimed Major Lyon, returning to thefront of the building.
"I see they are," replied Captain Gordon; "and there is a movement upthe new road, as you call it."
"What does that mean?"
"Probably it is intended to cover the launching of the boats. I thinkthe reprobates are in earnest this time," added the commander.
About fifty men started up the new road, and immediately broke into arun. The territory between the new and the old road was covered withtrees of large growth, though rather too sparsely to be a wood, but wasrather a grove. For about twenty rods above the cross roads the treeshad been cut off, and it was a stump field. As soon as the detachmentreached the grove they scattered and took refuge behind the trunks ofthe big trees.
"That is the idea, is it?" said Captain Gordon. "They intend to pick usoff from their covert. We must do the same thing. Scatter, my men; andfire at will as you see a head."
The recruits obeyed the order, and were sheltered behind the big treesby the time the enemy reached the positions they had chosen. A desultoryfiring was begun on both sides of the creek. The commander and the majorwere on horseback, and they could not protect themselves as the recruitsdid, and they rode to the rear of the boathouse. They found that Levihad organized a shovel brigade there. The Magnolia had been taken out ofthe water to prevent it from being captured by the marauders, and hadbeen placed behind the boathouse.
Levi had moved the craft about twenty feet from the building, and hadpropped it up, with the keel nearest to the creek. This was as far as hehad proceeded when the officer presented himself on the ground. Twentynegroes, armed with shovels, which had before been brought down in thewagon, were standing ready for orders.
"What in the world are you doing now, Levi?" asked the planter, when hesaw what had been done.
"I am throwing up a breastwork, so that my men can work the guns withoutbeing shot down by the enemy on the other side of the creek," repliedthe overseer.
"A capital idea!" exclaimed Captain Gordon.
"But you are putting it behind the boathouse, man!" shouted the major,who thought he had detected Levi in an egregious blunder.
"These negroes are worth from five hundred to a thousand dollars apieceif you want to sell them, and not many of them would be left if I shouldset them to digging in the open," replied Levi, laughing at his ownargument. "Those ruffians could pick them off at their leisure, and wemight as well not have any artillery if the cannoneers are to be shotdown as fast as they show themselves. I will warrant that fellow incommand on the other side has picked out his best riflemen for duty inthe grove."
"The negroes are not for sale," replied the planter. "I should as soonthink of selling one of my sons as one of them. But the boathouse isbetween you and the enemy, Levi."
"How long do you think it will take me with the force at hand to movethe boathouse out of the way, Major Lyon?" demanded the overseer with avery broad smile.
"I indorse Mr. Bedford's work," added Captain Gordon, who had turned toobserve the operation of the enemy at the cross roads. "They are notmaking a good job of their work."
As soon as the recruits had been ordered to the trees, and before thedetachment sent to the grove had obtained their positions, Deck andArtie had obeyed the commander's order in hot haste. They had chosen acouple of trees on the very verge of the quagmire which lay between thelawn and the road to the south; and when the ruffians attempted to movethe mules, both of them opened fire upon the animals.
Both of the boys were good shots, and they hit the mark every time. Themule, though one of the most useful beasts in the world, is veryuncertain at times. The testimony of soldiers is to the effect thatmules object to being under fire. The two boys were near enough to eachother to talk together, and they had agreed to fire into differentteams, and they had wounded one in each of them. The two that had beenhit not only made a disturbance, braying furiously, but theycommunicated the scare to the others. The mule drivers could do nothingwith them, and in a minute or two the whole of them were all snarled up,and the men were obliged to unhitch them from the wagons and lead themaway.
The animals were so terrified that they bolted up the new road in spiteof the drivers, and turned in at the bridge, which seemed to promisethem a place of security, just as Colonel Belthorpe and his partygalloped up to it. The mules were permitted to take the lead. MajorGadbury and Tom were with the planter of Lyndhall. Major Lyon saw them,and, by a roundabout course, joined them in season to prevent them fromcoming within range of the sharpshooters in the grove.
It did not take the planter of Riverlawn long to explain the situation;and he was informed that twenty Lyndhall negroes, under the lead ofUncle David, in wagons, were on their way to the seat of danger. Thehorses were left in charge of the servants, and the party made their wayto the fort, where they armed themselves with breech-loaders, and tookplaces behind the trees with the recruits.
At the cross roads the enemy were attempting to get the boats to thecreek by hauling the wagons by man-power. It was a long pull for them,but they succeeded at the end of a couple of hours. The party in thegrove and the one on the lawn were careful about showing themselves, andthe firing was continued on both sides without producing any decidedresult. But by this
time Levi had completed his breastwork. Rather tomake a smoke than for any other purpose, both of the twelve-pounderswere discharged, aimed into the grove.
While the smoke hung about the boathouse, for one of the pieces had beenfired on each side of it, all hands seized hold of the building, liftedit from its foundations, and bore it some distance towards the mansion.The cannon were then drawn into the hastily constructed fort, loadedwith round shot this time, and were ready for use. The cracking of therifles in the grove had been quite lively during this operation, and twoof the negroes were wounded.
By this time the first of the boats had been filled with men, who werepaddling it with all their might to a clump of bushes near the treeswhere Deck and Artie were sheltered. Both of them fired into the crowdin the boat. But it was hardly under way before Levi had brought one ofhis guns to bear upon it. He was very careful in pointing the piece, andthe solid shot struck the craft squarely on its bow, knocking the thingall to pieces. The black gunners cheered, and were almost mad withenthusiasm.
Another of the boats which had just been launched had to be used to pickup the men from the first. They were taken to the shore. Then some sortof a contention seemed to be stirred up among the party, the nature ofwhich could be easily understood, for it was almost sure death to embarkin the boats. In the mean time the shots from the recruits and othersbehind the trees were picking them off, and the dispute ended in thewhole of them taking to their heels and fleeing towards the bridge.
The fire from the grove seemed to be suspended at the same time; for thesharpshooters could not help seeing that the plan of attack, whatever itwas, had failed. Colonel Belthorpe and Major Lyon came out from behindtheir trees. Captain Gordon, who was a cavalry officer, thought it wastime for his arm of the service to come into action to harass theretreat of the enemy, if nothing more, and he called in all the recruitsfrom their covert, and ordered as many men as could be mounted to rallyat the bridge.
Twenty-four mounted men, including those from Lyndhall, were mustered,each with a breech-loader, in the absence of sabres and carbines.Captain Gordon led them down the new road to the grove. The forceoccupying it had fled to the old road, and were hurrying to the RapidsBridge. Among the trees they found two men killed and three badlywounded. Each of them had a rifle on the ground near him, and they wereweapons of excellent quality.
The cavalry party followed the fugitives to the bridge, and at theintercession of Major Lyon they were permitted to escape; for he wasconfident they would not make another attack upon Riverlawn, at leastnot till they had an organized regiment for the purpose.
While they were upon the ground, Tom Belthorpe and Major Gadbury signedthe enlistment papers, as Deck and Artie had done before, and theLyndhall party went home. The recruits were dismissed for a week, andordered to report at Riverlawn at the end of that time.
The second battle had been fought and won, and there was no presentdanger of another attack, though patrols were kept along the creek tillthe camp was formed the following week. The two attacks upon Riverlawnwas the current topic of conversation all over the county for the nextweek; and so far from damaging the Union cause, it stimulated therecruiting, and at the end of the week Lieutenant Gordon had the namesof a full company on his roll. He had reported his success, and hadreceived orders to enlist another company.
The government supplied everything that was required, including sabres,carbines, uniforms, ammunition, and lumber for barracks. Steamboats fromEvansville came up the river loaded with supplies; and as the water washigh from unusual rains, they landed their cargoes at the boathousepier, enlarged for the purpose. Each boat was provided with a guard, forthey were occasionally fired upon from the shore. Another officer andseveral non-commissioned officers were sent to the camp.
Barracks and stables were built, and the drill was kept up verydiligently. Riverlawn was no longer between two fires, for they were nowall on one side. Before, the fight had been a sort of neighborhoodquarrel; but now it had become a national affair. The outrages uponUnion men ceased in that locality, though they still occurred in otherparts of the State. At the end of a month two companies of cavalry hadbeen enlisted, forming a squadron, if another could be raised.
About this time the Home Guard, under command of Captain Titus Lyon,marched to Bowling Green for the purpose of joining the Confederate armythat was expected there. They went with such arms as they had used inthe second battle of Riverlawn, and without uniforms. They had a hardtime of it; for they had no supplies, and suffered from hunger and coldin the cool nights. Titus's two sons, Sandy and Orly, were enrolled inthe company; but both of them deserted, though they had not beenmustered in, and went back to their mother, where they could at leastget enough to eat. The captain could not go home, for it required hispresence and all his skill and energy to keep his recruits fromabandoning the company.
Noah Lyon saw nothing more of his brother after his visit to Riverlawnwhen the lieutenant arrived. After he had gone to the South, his wifeand daughters called at the mansion, and declared that they were leftwithout money or means of support, except so far as they could obtain itfrom the little farm.
Deck and Artie Lyon, whose career as soldiers is to appear in thesevolumes, now appeared wearing the uniform of cavalrymen, with sabresclinking at their sides. They have been under fire, though not in apitched battle. They are frequent visitors on Sundays at Lyndhall, andKate Belthorpe has what her father called "a violent admiration forCaptain Deck," as he still insists upon styling him, assured that, if heis not of that rank now, he will be in due time. The next volume willpresent the two boys and others engaged in actual warfare; and what theydid will be found in "IN THE SADDLE."
THE BLUE AND THE GRAY
NAVY SERIES
TAKEN BY THE ENEMY WITHIN THE ENEMY'S LINES ON THE BLOCKADE STAND BY THE UNION FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT A VICTORIOUS UNION
ARMY SERIES
BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER IN THE SADDLE (In Press) A LIEUTENANT AT EIGHTEEN (In Press)
(Other volumes in preparation)
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